The trial of little owl

By Gail Vines

In the 1930s, as Europe stood on the brink of war, British landowners were poised to launch their own offensive. Their target was a foreign invader from Europe, the little owl, Athene noctua. Half a century earlier, a few pairs had been released in England. Several decades on, these diminutive birds of prey, source of these bone-packed pellets, had become a common sight in parklands and orchards throughout much of England and Wales. But as they spread across the country, so did stories about their evil ways.

The little owl was accused of the wholesale slaughter of pheasants, partridges and poultry chicks, not to mention songbirds. Estate managers and gamekeepers reviled it as the worst sort of vermin, and clamoured for its extermination. A bird that had been revered by the ancient Greeks and sacred to Athene, goddess of wisdom, looked destined for extinction in Britain. Only one person could save the owls now – Miss Alice Hibbert-Ware of the village of Girton near Cambridge.

IN THE time-honoured manner, the matter was to be decided by committee. The little owl – an alien species from the Continent – was on trial for the killing of Britain’s game birds. So in 1935, the British Trust for Ornithology convened a panel of the great and the good to determine its fate. Everything would depend on what it ate, and that would be cleared up by the Little Owl Food Inquiry.

The inquiry’s “scientific advisory committee” was packed with distinguished gentleman experts. But they were to act only as judge and jury. To discover what little owls were actually consuming, these men turned to Alice Hibbert-Ware. …

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